Monday, January 10, 2011

As I type in the date, I can't believe it's been nearly 5 months since my dad's horrific accident...

Walking & stregthening are coming along in therapy. He has been given permission to walk in his room with the walker, slowly getting away from the wheelchair. He mostly needs the wheelchair for the "arms" to push himself up when geeting out of the chair. This means arm stregthening too! Appetite is definitely back & he is back to his pre-accident weight. Good news... he likes to get up every hour to stretch his legs. Bad news he hasn't been given permission to leave the room so where else can he go other than to the basket of snacks! Gotta smile:-)

This past Saturday I picked him up & took him out for the afternoon. We first went to his house so he could enjoy a little time at home without all the busy-ness of the holidays. His friend, Dave, came over which was a real treat. I left the 2 of them to chat while I ran over to the mall for about an hour. All was well... must have been quite close to feeling independent! While at home we measured the height of steps, chair lengths, car seats, etc. All things one typically doesn't think about in everyday living... From there we went to Panera for lunch, eating in the restaurant. Another treat and just being out in the real world is such a breath of fresh air for him:) He was exhausted 3 1/2 hours later when we returned to Waterville, however, every minute was well worth the time/effort. We will continue this Saturday afternoon ritual indefinitely.

Realistically, my dad is looking at mid-February as the going home target date. He (we) doesn't want to make the big move until he is 100% certain he can make it on his own. Obviously, therapy will continue for a long, long time. He has made huge progress over the last 4 weeks and hopefully he'll continue to move forward at that same pace on his road to recovery.

Many blessings!